This invention relates to retaining users in a social networking system by resuming or increasing interactions between the users of the social networking system.
The success of a social networking system hinges on attracting and retaining users, and encouraging those users to be active in the social networking system. Attracting and retaining users are important for at least the following two reasons. First, the number of users is critical to the number and quality of interactions between the users. As the number of the users increases, more user-generated content (UGC) (including postings and media items) become available via the social networking system. The increase in the UGC contributes to the increase in the number and quality of interactions between the users. Conversely, if the social networking system loses active users, the number and quality of interactions between the users tend to deteriorate, as the number and quality of the UGC deteriorate.
Second, the advertisement revenue of the social networking system depends largely on the number of active users. Many social networking systems do not charge fees for membership. Instead, these social networking systems rely on revenue generated from online advertisements to sustain their business. With more revenue, the social networking system in turn can attract more users by adding more resources (e.g., servers) and/or providing other useful services. Hence, attracting and retaining active users in the social networking systems are also important from the business perspective of the social networking systems.
To attract and retain users and to encourage the users to interact, social networking systems have traditionally relied on various methods, such as providing unique and helpful information unavailable in other services, advertising the social networking system, compensating referrals from other websites or users, and providing free access to resources such as storage space or data (e.g., media items). Such ways of attracting and retaining users have limited efficacy, and hence, users of the social networking systems tend to decrease gradually as other competing systems emerge.